


If I get Lost, Promise You'll Leave Me Be

by thechargrey



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Catra/Adora will grow up as the story progresses, Eventual Happy Ending, Evil Shadow Weaver, F/F, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, In the begining they're young, Minor Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, alternate universe - Fairy, catradora, eventual angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 17:51:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20568440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechargrey/pseuds/thechargrey
Summary: Catra knows how dangerous fairies are, everyone for her entire life has told her stories of how tricky and evil they can be. Growing up as part of the horde has made her doubly cautious.But when she finally meets a cute fairy who introduces herself as She-ra, Catra begins to realize that maybe fairies aren't what everyone has made them out to be...and maybe the horde isn't either._______A Catradora fairy AU.





	If I get Lost, Promise You'll Leave Me Be

To any traveler from a strange land the meadow may have seemed peaceful. On one side a small brooke plodded along, moving so slowly the traveler might mistake it for being still water. That is, until they approached to discover the water had sluggishly carved out its path in the clay just as any river would. On the other—lined with oak trees older than the nearest town, so old and so large they were too big for someone to throw their arms across.

Those lucky enough to stumble across the place would have stopped and stared in surprise at the sudden break in the oversized trees. The meadow was far enough across and so perfectly circular that it seemed unlikely for it to be anything other than man made.

But even so, as large as the meadow was the trees surrounding it were still larger. Light had no choice but to filter through them in order to reach the grasses, catching dust and leaf and all other number of particles in the rays that managed to make it to the ground. 

The grasses were a bit tall perhaps, one of the only clues that the place was not well taken care of by any person. It was covered in what many of the townsfolk might call weeds, but that a young child might call flowers, before picking several and taking them home only to be scolded by their mother and made to throw them out.

The only other clue that the place was not of human design was the ring of mushrooms that had popped up so perfectly in the center. It was these same mushrooms that announced to anyone other than a traveler that this meadow was not a peaceful place at all, but a place with a nefarious purpose that a fool knew inherently to be wary of and even a wise person had been told enough stories to recognize the danger.

It was on the edge of this meadow on the farther side of the brooke that Catra stood. Her only movement was what the tiniest of breezes could coerce—a few hairs and her occasional blink. 

She wasn’t a traveler, and though wisdom comes from time, she had lived in the outlying town long enough to hear a few stories. In fact she probably had less of a reason to be there—being a young recruit from the Horde—than anyone else in the town.

Except…

Except it was exactly because she was from the Horde that she had come. Specifically because this circle of mushrooms was Shadow Weaver’s greatest fear and that made it the single best place in the village if hiding from her was what someone wanted to do.  _ No. _ Not hiding—purposefully flaunting Shadow Weaver’s weaknesses.

And so Catra stood on the edge of the brooke, looking into the water, unsure of just what to do next.

The longer she stood there the less sure she was. Shouldn’t something have happened by now? Wasn’t that what the stories said? Be wary of the fairy circles lest a fairy appear and steal your name—or some sort of bullshit like that.

Catra’s head rolled back and she sighed. Maybe fairies didn’t appear on thursdays.

As long as she didn’t get too close it was probably fine. No use worrying about it until something appeared. The circle would keep Shadow Weaver away regardless.

She pulled at her boots and then her stockings, part of the dumb uniform the Horde was always enforcing on her.  _ How are you supposed to fight evil if you don’t look like presentable boys and girls? _ Psh. As though fighting evil had anything to do with wearing shoes and petticoats and the stiff heavy fabrics of their jackets. All of it was hot and itched like crazy. And in the summer? Even worse.

In the Horde Catra had taken to unbuttoning the jacket if she wore it at all, letting the white undershirt breath and cool the sweat on the back of her neck. That made Shadow Weaver mad. Then she’d snuck through the boy’s dormitory and borrowed a couple pairs of the cotton pants they were allowed to wear in the summer. That had made Shadow Weaver even angrier.

If Catra had to hear the word  _ unbecoming _ one more time she was going to scream. She just wanted to wear something reasonable. Why was that such a crime? It was better to get lost in the mists of the fairy plains for all of eternity than to deal with Shadow Weaver for yet another day.

Catra eyed the mushrooms in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at them as they glowed with malice.

Really they had the gentle flickering appearance of sun rays lazily shifting around them, but they should have been glowing with malice. Catra sighed and stopped her glare. It was useless anyway.

Okay. So maybe getting trapped on the fairy plains was a bit worse of the options in front of her: get caught by shadow weaver or get caught by a fairy. She wasn’t about to get any closer to the circle anyway, so it’s not like it mattered. Obviously nothing was coming out of it to grab her and pull her in.

Fairies had teeth as sharp as pickaxes, and almost as long too. They had wings on their back that could beat a tornado into the sky, and get you completely lost. They had menacing eyes that glowed in the darkness. All those stories were just lies the Horde told the townspeople to make them easier to control. Probably.

There was no way that anyone in the village had seen a fairy in more than a hundred years. Or at the very least no one had seen a fairy and actually survived. 

That should make Catra shake, right? She should be shivering down her back at the very thought of that circle. People  _ died _ here. They disappeared without ever being heard from again.

But the brooke at her feet made a bubbling sound as water flowed gently over the river rocks. Little specks of dandelion seeds and other fluff wafted through the air, gently coming to land on Catra’s eyelashes before getting whisked away again by the slightest breeze. Patches of sunlight shimmered all around until they found their way to Catra’s skin and it greedily soaked up whatever warmth it could as though it was aware the sun would disappear over the horizon in just over an hour. 

The breeze flowed around her. The water talked to her. The sunlight fed her as though she were a plant and not a person. 

With bare feet the clay around the stream shifted between Catra’s toes, making pleasant squelching noises as she lifted each one off the ground in turn. It gave off a pleasant cooling sensation even before she’d even had a chance to dip her toes into the water. 

The first step was marvelous. A cooling sensation at the base of Catra's neck trickled pleasantly down her spine, leaving her to shiver it off. The warm air that surrounded her contrasted the cool of the water making her feel like she was in a dream.

She hiked her pants up around the knees so that she could go deeper without soaking them. That would not be a fun walk back to the Horde. Each step chafing against her legs the entire mile back. She’d have red bumps the whole of the next day. She pulled the ribbons from her blouse and tied them to make sure the pants stayed put and would not slip.

Another couple of steps into the river revealed rocks that were smooth to the touch of her feet. The uneven pressure of the river required careful balance, which was nothing to Catra, but the slipperiness of the rocks still meant she’d have to be careful.

A sigh escaped her lips as the brooke flowed past her ankles and then her calves.

This. Here. This was the real magic of the world. A young girl splashing in a river in the midst of summer heat. The balmy perfume of flowers sweetening the air as wishing seeds fluttered all around her. Trickles of sunlight warming her back.

Shadow Weaver would have mocked her if she could hear Catra’s thoughts. Only the great leaders of the Horde had magic...other than the fairies. Once you started believing that there was more magic than just that you would get lost in the world, let your guard down, become easy to trick. Then it was just a matter of time before your name was stolen and your soul trapped. The lesson was burned into Catra’s mind forever. Shadow Weaver had made sure of that.

Another shiver ran down Catra’s spine, not one of pleasure this time. 

Catra focused on the mud beneath her toes instead. She watched as each step kicked a small cloud up, that trailed away as the river pulled at each individual fleck. The tension in her neck flowed away the same speed as the brooke. 

A smile cracked Catra’s face. Happy to be in this forbidden place. Happy to be away from the Horde for once and the townspeople who were hardly any better. 

The next step into the river had the opposite effect. Catra hissed. A larger rock had seemed to appear out of nowhere. Her toe stung a bit where she had banged it, and she pulled it up gently, trying to get a look at it without unbalancing herself, hoping it wasn’t bleeding.

“Careful, you might slip.”

Catra’s foot slammed back into the water as she choked on air. She flailed her arms backwards. Pinwheeling as her butt hit the river rocks beneath her, this time gulping on water until she could pull her head above the brooke once more.

Matted wet hair obstructed her vision. She tried to pull it back, but without both hands holding her steady she found herself sliding back down below the surface. Hands scrambling to find purchase, but only coming up with mud. She pushed harder, fighting the fabric and water that enveloped her.

Her hand whacked something hard. A root. She pulled. She sent a silent prayer to whatever gods could hear her that it would hold. It did.

The squelching sound of her own clothes greeted her as she flopped back on the side of the brooke. Free.

Over the sound of her own choking breaths she could hear the tinkling of a bell. No. Not a bell. 

Laughter.

Catra wiped her face to clear it of both water and hair and turned to glare towards the sound. A young girl who had to be about the same age as Catra herself was keeled over and pulling at her sides as she laughed at Catra’s expense.

Stupid blondie. What gave her the right—

Catra’s eyes opened wide as she realized where the girl was sitting. Right there in the middle of the meadow surrounded by trees and flowers and—mushrooms—with long flowing hair and a slight glow even in the places the sunlight couldn’t touch.

Catra scrambled back, trying to stand. Clay coated her fingertips and made anything she grabbed at slip from her fingers. She backed up instead, her shoulders hitting the base of a tree behind her.

She might look like a little girl, but for all Catra knew blondie was the age of the forest itself. She undeniably had magic. She would try to trick Catra into...something. This girl was dangerous.

“Oh, please don’t run away.” The girl sat up and met Catra’s eyes, her laughter cutting off abruptly. “I was only laughing because of the irony, not to tease you.”

The aura of light followed the girl’s skin as she moved slightly to bend her legs into a more comfortable sitting position. It struck Catra that this girl didn’t seem to understand why she was so scared. Or maybe it was all an act. There was no way for Catra to be sure.

They both waited, staring at each other. Waiting for what, Catra couldn’t exactly be sure. There was no indication of how she’d appeared so suddenly in the circle. There hadn’t been a pressure change in the air or anything tangible Catra could feel like she might have expected from the stories. It was off-putting, but it also put Catra at a shaky ease. That and also that the girl didn’t make any sign that she was going to approach or do anything at all. Actually, she seemed kind of bored. 

Catra opened her mouth to speak.

Blondie's eyebrows rose on her face expectantly, excitedly. Her smile—encouragingly.

It all made Catra's voice die in her throat.

Instead of whatever rational and intelligent thing she was going to say Catra blurted out, "You're a fairy."

Blondie's face darkened a bit. She frowned at Catra, who immediately felt stupid. How could she say that? Just accuse her like that? If she really was a fairy Catra was a fool, if she wasn’t, Catra was still a fool. If she was going to make it through this interaction alive then she better start acting a bit more clever. Pissing off a magical being was the worst thing she could do.

It took a moment but the girl finally spoke. "Yeah…"

The air around Catra deflated. Alright. Ok. This time Catra would have a response that showcased her brilliance and that she wasn't just some fool to be messed with. This time she'd make sure this fairy knew that she meant business. This time she wasn't going to say anything insulting. This time…

"Yourenotgonnabeabletotrickme!" It came out of Catra's mouth so fast and in one breath that it sounded more like a single extremely long word than a complete sentence.

Catra could have slapped her own forehead for all the good it would do her brain.

The fairy was faring much better with remaining level headed. She still looked annoyed though. "Who said I was trying to trick you?"

Catra deflated a bit more. She almost believed this girl. She  _ wanted _ to. But even though her mouth was doing its best to make her seem so, Catra wasn't stupid. Best to start over than to keep making everything worse. "Sorry...uh…"

Still none of the right words came. Why wouldn't the words come?

The fairy waved off the apology. "It's fine. I just thought—nevermind. I'll go."

"Wait!"

Wait? Wait?! What the hell kind of trouble was Catra's mouth trying to get her in? The fairy was about to do the best thing that she could do to ensure Catra wasn't about to die and its response was not to do that? But now the fairy was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to say anything else.

"I...uh...I just mean that I've never met a fairy before…"

"Oh. That makes the two of us I guess." The fairy thought for a moment before contemplating what she'd said. She continued faster than before, blushing. "I've never met a human, I mean. I've met lots of fairies. All my friends are fairies. We all live together—well not together, together...we just sort of all live in the same general area. Well I guess technically I may have met one human although I wouldn't exactly call—"

"Uh-huh…" Catra didn't know how else to stop the fairy from rambling. Blondie blushed at the interruption. 

Honestly this whole interaction was weird. This fairy seemed weird.

Catra hadn't been expecting that she'd run into a fairy, but she had expected that any fairy she ran into would seem...well...different somehow? Not this girl. Definitely not this one.

"Soo…" Catra tried again. Third time's the charm, right? The words felt hollow, but at least they were a start. "What brings you into this part of the woods?"

Whatever Catra had expected the fairy to do was not what happened. She blushed. The fairy blushed an even deeper shade of red as though realizing for the first time that she was sitting in a circle of mushrooms having a casual conversation with a human girl. She wouldn't meet Catra's eyes and determinedly started playing with her fingers instead. "Oh...I...uh...I just...I thought...that maybe you looked like you could be fun?"

Catra's mouth fell open. What even was this? "Fun…"

"Yeah...fun. I don't know. I mean we look like we might be the same age...and you were playing in the water...and wearing pants…"

"Pants…"

"Yeah I haven't ever seen a human girl wearing pants—well—I haven't really seen any human girls at all, but I saw you and thought maybe you weren't the typical human and maybe it would be fun to talk to you, or like maybe you would be fun to play with or something. I don't know. You're probably not though. Now that I think about it, it was a pretty stupid idea. Humans aren't fun and—"

"I'm fun." 

Once again a good slap to the head might help Catra's brain work a little better.

"You're…?"

" _ I'm _ fun."

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a moment considering each other. The fairy looked surprised, but seemed somehow poised at the same time. Catra had to look like a half drowned cat in comparison, soaked and covered in mud. All she was missing were the ears.

Then an impish smile broke across the fairy's face. "So is that what I should call you then?"

"What?"

"Fuu-uun." She emphasized the word.

Catra snorted. "Of course not, my name is—" The words stuck in her throat, suddenly realizing what she was about to say. She looked at the fairy with sudden mistrust in her eyes. "You're not going to trick me that easily. You may as well call me Lord Madame C’yra of D’riluth III for all the good it will do you."

Whatever. Catra was done playing with this fairy. She stood up, squelching slightly as she did so and grabbed her boots off the ground not bothering to put them on before stalking away.

"Wait! That's not what I—"

"Save it for someone who cares, blondie."

"No really. I—"

Catra shot a peace sign in the air, not even bothering to look back. She heard blondie take a deep breath inward, could just about hear her thinking. 

But Catra wasn't expecting the fairy's next words to be in the most ridiculously exaggerated deep voice the young girl could manage. "My apologies  _ m'lord madame _ ."

Catra turned to see the fairy bowing to her ridiculous title like it was the most normal thing in the world. Catra couldn't help herself. She snorted.

"Madame is good enough."

The fairy looked up at her with sudden joy and hope in her eyes. "Alright then. Madame it is."

Catra shook her head, hearing the formality. She didn't like it. She racked her brains for the full name she'd just given. "No. No. If you're going to call me something why don't you just call me C'yra. That'll work as well as anything."

"C'yra then."

"And you?"

The fairy considered for a second before speaking. "If you want to call me something you can call me She-ra."

Catra snorted again. "She-ra? Really?"

"What? It's cute."

Catra mumbled under her breath. "That's one word for it."

“As though your name’s any better? Lord Madame C’yra of D’riluth III?” It was She-ra’s turn to snort. “Tell me, oh great namer, how many apostrophes do you think that a name needs before it’s befitting of a stately lady?”

Catra felt her face burn hot. It only made She-Ra’s laughter peel louder. Catra crossed her arms.

“And now the stately lady pouts. Prithee, great lady, just how might I halt thee’s frown against deepening further?”

Catra felt the heat under her skin travel down to her neck. She looked away. “I’m no stately lady.” 

She-ra was silent for a moment before speaking, seeming to realize how embarrassed she had made the girl. “No, you’re not,” she said quietly.

Catra looked up just quick enough to see the girl’s face change from feigned seriousness to scheming trickery.

Then, “you’re just a kid like me whose turn it is to be  _ it! _ ”

Without any other warning the fairy pounced, jumping in three bounds all the way across the meadow and the stream to tap Catra on the head.

“Hey!” Catra barely managed to yell out in her surprise before the fairy pranced away outside the limit of a swipe of her arm.

Truthfully Catra was surprised by more than just the fairy’s sudden action and change of mood. Maybe it was the dancing light, maybe it was that she hadn’t looked very closely at the fairy, but she hadn’t recognized the glow of She-ra’s skin until she left the fairy circle. In less time than it had taken her to jump the distance between them, She-ra’s skin dimmed, her hair darkened and shrank from a blindingly white blonde to a dishwater color that wouldn’t have been out of place among the people from the village. Even her clothing had seemed to shift into something more—dare Catra think it—normal.

Catra didn’t have the time to think about what the sudden change might mean though. She had a fairy to catch. The last thought in her head before she ran off in her chase was what Shadow Weaver might think.

Catra smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Wooo! New story!
> 
> I’m so excited about this one. I’ve been tossing this idea around in my head for months but I was struggling with putting it on paper. I’m so glad I can share it with you all now. 
> 
> I’m just loving how this chapter turned out. Usually I wait to post things until I have a cleaner, more thorough outline and have written a few chapters...but not this one. I got too excited about it. So obviously I have no upload schedule for the time being and have no idea exactly how long this fic will be. Hopefully I’ll have a better idea soon.
> 
> If you’re looking for more Catradora, you can always check out my other She-Ra fic [This Doesn’t Change Anything](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16686628). Otherwise I have a lot of finished [Voltron stories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechargrey/works?fandom_id=10104017) (which I don’t plan on writing anymore, but if you miss those boys I’ve got you covered).
> 
> Talk to me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/thechargrey) or [tumblr](https://thechargrey.tumblr.com/) (my [art tumblr’s](https://charcoloring.tumblr.com/) here)! I’d love your thoughts on my new story or just yell at me about whatever. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Sending so much love your way!
> 
> -CG


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